Today we're continuing the journey of my Fantasy Fellowship with the Warg Attack scenario. This scenario plays a lot like the Wargs in the Night scenario, in that the heroes have to slog through a bunch of grunts and need to not die (I lose if 3/6 heroes die). The game lasts for 12 rounds, but it was unclear to us if models could roll to come onto the board once or if dead Warg Riders could continually come onto the board. Since we'd played Wargs in the Night already (and the wording of the scenario rule was ambiguous - I mean, named heroes can't come back, right?), we decided to not allow "previously slain models" (the terminology used in scenarios like Ambush at Amon Hen, Wargs in the Night, and Escape from Dwarrowdelf) to come back. As you will see, while we probably could have allowed it, I doubt it would have changed much. Let's get into it!
The board was set up as you see below - Hama (represented by my converted Erkenbrand model) begins the game prone and in the center of the board. Gamling (no banner in this scenario) starts on my side of the board within 3" of him, while an Orc Captain on Warg (no shield) and two Warg Riders (Centaur elected to use two throwing spear and shield guys - represented by Wild Wargs) are within 3" on the opposite side of the board. Unlike other narrative scenarios, Evil is ambushing here and gets to start with priority. More than that, my heroes aren't allowed to call Heroic Actions on the first turn (we're surprised and all).
Turn 1: Priority Evil
In the Fight phase, Hama lost his fight and was wounded only once (1/2H), while Gamling lost his fight on a roll-off (1/3M), his horse was killed, and then he took a wound (1/2H). With only 1 Fate/1 Wound left on each of these guys, I could be down two heroes by the end of next round . . .
Well, nothing for it - without priority and REALLY needing to get better positioning, Gamling called a Move (2/3M). By engaging the Captain and one of the Warg Riders, I have both my heroes on their feet and Hama is fighting a F3 Warg Rider. More importantly, because they're both solidly on my side of the board, it was quite likely that my OTHER heroes would be in charge range . . .
As you can see above, Evil got a few more models on and advanced further. One of the Warg Riders wrapped around Hama to get a F4 model into the fight, but that placed him solidly in range of my models. I think I broke a rule though: I had Gloin dismount into combat and THEN charged Dwalin into the same combat. As you'll see shortly, this had a small impact on the game, but what I THINK I should have done was charged into combat and THEN dismounted. Even now, I'm not sure that I can do that, but oh well, this is Fantasy Fellowships, not a tournament, right? Theoden rolled just shy of his required arrival roll, so he boosted it (1/3M).
In the Fight phase, Gloin called a Heroic Combat (1/3M) and Gamling called a Heroci Defense (3/3M). Gloin and Dwalin massacred their foe and Gloin charged in to help Hama while Dwalin swept in to take a swing at Sharku and Nori charged two Warg Riders.
In the rest of the fights, Gamling won but didn't do anything, Gloin killed the Warg Rider just barely, but the warg stayed. Hama then swung at the Warg and burned his Might Point to kill it (1/1M). Dwalin, like the diva he is, lost to Sharku (only rolling a 3-high) and lost his horse. BOOOO!!!!!
Turn 3: Priority Evil
Losing priority again bit, so I called a Heroic Move with Gloin (2/3M) and the Orc Captain countered (1/2M). the Captain won the roll-off and got some charges in.
Gloin then responded (since he wasn't tagged) and charged a Warg Rider that had charged into Gamling (he's vulnerable and all).
In the Shoot phase, an Orc bow killed a horse out from under one of my Riders - I didn't get a 6 on my Thrown Rider test, so that guy won't be able to make Strikes this round.
In the Fight Phase, I called a Heroic Combat with Dwalin (1/3M) and the Orc Captain (2/2M) called one as well. The Captain won the roll-off but lost his fight, failing a Fate roll and suffering a wound from Hama (1/1F, 1/2H). Dwalin killed his guy (but had to burn two Might points) and decided to charge the Captain.
In the rest of the fights, Gloin killed all his guys (spent his last Might though, 3/3M), Sharku won his fight (1/3M) and killed Nori's horse. Nori decided being a diva for one round would be fun too, so he got a 1 on the Thrown Rider, suffered no wound from the Thrown Rider test but suffered 2 wounds from Sharku (2/3M), but Nori managed to pass his Fate save! (1/1F, 1/2H). Yeesh, that was close . . .
Turn 4: Priority Good
Finally, we get priority! We charged a bunch of guys - Dwalin and Gloin both jumped on Sharku, but left enough room for Theoden to join them. We got some other charges off, as you can see (though you might also note that Hama and Gamling are legging it away from the action at the bottom-left of the picture).
I called a Heroic Combat with Theoden (2/3M) - they managed to dice up Sharku easily. Dwalin did fail to wound with 2 strikes, and suffered a wound (1/2H). The champs all jumped on the Warg Rider nearby, while Theoden sailed off to join his boys.
The fights went pretty well, with no casualties suffered on my side (being F4 against F3 helps a lot). My dismounted rider did lose his fight and get knocked Prone, but he blessedly wasn't wounded.
Turn 5: Priority Good
I got to charge first again and got as good match-ups as I could. My champs were out of charge range, so they just advanced. 1 Warg Rider fled from the field.
I called one more Heroic Combat with Theoden (3/3M) and it worked perfectly. Theoden was able to Feint (since I had a F4 Rider against a F3 Warg Rider), and with the reroll of a 1 on the To Wound roll, I finished both rider and mount. Golly, I love it when heroes are working . . .
By the end of this round, there were only two Warg Riders left - we called it after this round since there was no way three heroes were going to die to those guys. Having lost only three mounts and one Rider, things were pretty much set in stone. With a rest point coming up, it didn't matter who was Bravest Companion or Fool of a Took for this mission (though Gloin did more work than anyone, so he's clearly the Bravest Companion).
Conclusion
So it turns out that when both sides get +1 FV on the charge, charging matters a lot! Having a bunch of Might points really helped out with that (and having Theoden come in late was a huge boon after my Champs were out).
While I think respawning Warg Riders would have made life harder for my heroes, the danger was next to nil once we got through the third round. I imagine the game would have gone on for seven more rounds the way Wargs in the Night did - just waiting for the next wave to arrive. Since they'd always arrive from the opposite board edge, I would have just stayed on my side of the board the entire game instead of pressing forward into the enemy side of the board, forcing the Warg Riders to spend at least two turns getting to us, all while shooting at them. Personally, I think the mission is better without the respawn - it's just a fun kill-all-the-things mission that way.
I will say that while my champs certainly showed up today, two of them had their diva moments - there's nothing like losing a fight with Dwalin and Nori when you should totally win and losing your horse . . . at least Gloin came to play! Defense 8 was pretty good too. Next time, we'll be walking through what we need to plan for in the Helm's Deep scenarios - and boy do we have a lot to talk about! Until next time, happy hobbying!
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